MUMBAI: L&T Infotech is betting on its new management team and a revamped sales force with 'digital jedis' to boost growth in Europe, an area where it has lagged rivals. The company has brought in a slew of top executives from rival IT firms including Infosys, Accenture and Mindtree. Last week, it hired Sudhir Chaturvedi ­ former chief operating officer at NIIT Technologies ­ as president ­ sales.

"In about 10 days, I will be moving to the US and as you know, Sudhir is based in London. So he will be spearheading our growth initiatives for Europe," Sanjay Jalona, chief executive officer of L&T Infotech told ET. Jalona added that the company had made other hires, helping flesh out its management bench, an area that had been pin-pointed as the company's main weakness.

Bhattacharjee's LinkedIn profile states that he managed revenue of over $1 billion at Accenture with 150 clients. At the time of its initial public offering, L&T Infotech reported revenue from continuing operations of just over $800 million.

In May, the Mumbai-headquartered company brought in Soumendra Mohanty as head of analytics. Mohanty previously worked at Mindtree and was also a managing director at Accenture.

In February, L&T Infotech appointed Aftab Ullah, the former head of Bank of America's captive in India, as chief operating officer. "These headcount additions are important. In the past, a lot of L&T Infotech's sales were driven from L&T. Now they are putting in the bench to be able to call the top executives at clients themselves," an analyst with a Mumbai-brokerage told ET. He declined to be identified because he is not authorised to talk to the media.

Jalona added that the company could continue to hire top ta continue to hire top talent. "I think we have a good team in place.But we are always looking for good talent.You can never say never," Jalona said. Putting in place a strong team in Europe is also part of Jalona's focus. Europe contributes under-20 per cent of L&T Infotech's revenue, leaving it heavily dependent on the US market. L&T Infotech has said that it is actively scouting for deals at that continent.

Jalona said he spent 30 per cent of his time looking at Europe. The company has also revamped its sales team and instituted a 'Digital Jedi' programme to bring in a consulting-led approach into its sales organisation. "When we started, we sent about 30 per cent of the sales team back to delivery. All sales will have to be consultingled from now on. We have what we call 'Digital Jedis' who know how technology will impact customers because they have industry experience," he said.

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